deeds which you have immortalized? By celebrating the worth of our fathers, you impofe an arduous task on their fons."

He introduced me to the fage, and became the partial historian of the period which I had spent in his camp. I found Livy already informed of every thing that had happened to me: he rofe and went into his library, whence he returned with a small volume. "This," faid he, fhewing it to Cæfar," contains notes which I have made on the prefent times; at the head of each page is the name of fome illuftrious family, whofe ancestors have diftinguished themselves in the fervice of their country; below I have written the names, qualities, and actions of fuch of their living defcendents that fupport or add to the honour of their race. Where I am obliged to leave blank pages, I confider that family as extinct for the prefent generation. Behold under the title of the CLAUDI how much I have been writing! fee here the QUINTII: what you have related to me of Marcus is already inferted; but it is unneceffary," continued be, clofing the volume," to fhew this book to you and to your friend; I could wish that they, whofe ancestors' names are the only ornament of the page, were to caft their eyes on the void space, furely they would be roufed from their apathy and endeavour to fill it."

Quintius Flaminius is one of my favourite heroes, as you may obferve by my choice of his likeness to adorn my veftibule; he contributed equally to infpire a love and fear of the Roman name; he excelled the Greeks in wit and elegance almoft as much as he was fuperior to them in valour; and this part of his character deferves to be remarked. If every great and good man was amiable, the caufe of virtue would gain univerfal fupport, and vice would be left without an excufe. Beneficent Divinities are always painted beautiful."

I took the liberty of enquiring why he had not graced his por tico with the buft of Julius Cæfar, and he inftantly replied, "Becaufe I could not in the oppofite nitch place that of Pompey the great, though I hope in my hiftory I have done juftice to them both. Had Cæfar fallen in the battle of Pharfalia, not only I, but the whole world would have confidered his image as too valuable to be confounded with any other; and, even now, I fhould affign it the first place, if his defcendants were not mafters of Rome."

• Germanicus embraced the hiftorian on hearing these words: "My venerable friend!" exclaimed he with transport," your fincerity dignifies the praife you have beftowed on my father in your works, and on me in your prefence."

Livy enquired of Cæfar whether there were any hopes that Ovid would be recalled from banishment.

"I commiferate his fate," anfwered Germanicus; " and Suillius has lately fhewn me a moft affecting epiftle, which his unfortunate father-in-law addreffed to him from Pontus, with the

Auguftus ufed to call Livy fportively the Pompeian. Taci

tus, &c.'

view of engaging me to ferve him; but I dare not folicit his return. Tiberius will hardly grant a favour of this nature, which was conftantly refufed me by Auguftus. I am ignorant of the real caufe of his exile; it is scarcely to be imagined, however just the fentence against immoral writers, that it would be pronounced on him alone, while many others, equally guilty, remain unpunished. Yet, undoubtedly, the greater an author's talents, the more ftrictly should his works be examined. The young and inexperienced are mifled by the charms of language, when the fame principles, conveyed in rode and unpolifhed terms, would ftrike them with a proper difguft; but whether the exile of Ovid has put a flop to the evils attributed to his writings, I leave you to determine. As a votary to the Mufes, I lament that poets are fo feldom excellent moralifts; their praises of virtue have too much the air of flattery, and their fatires against vice are either fo didactic as to fatigue, or fo malignant as to offend. You alone, who fhew us the faithful picture of the advantages that fpring from noble actions, and of the mischief arifing from crimes, can truly inftruct the prefent and future generation by the example of the past.

"You will, notwithstanding, own," replied the hiftorian," that many excellent precepts of moral philofophy are conveyed to us by the fportive gaiety of Horace, and that his ode on the victories of your father is fuperior to all the volumes I have written."

"This ode," faid Germanicus, "is my pride and my delight; but did not you, and other hiftorians, atteft the truths it contains, pofterity might admire the harmony of its numbers, and the loftinefs of its expreffions, but would, after once reading, caft it afide with the innumerable adulatory compofitions that begin to difgrace our language, and will for ever difhonour literature while poets and patrons exist."

The hours paffed fwiftly in the company of Livy, and I regretted that we were obliged to leave him. We returned by the fields of Quintius Cincinnatus †, which will probably long preferve bis venerated name. Modeft frugality is a virtue, which, at all times, receives the approbation of the good, and excites no envy among the vain and ambitious: the indigent man of merit, when he fits down to his homely meal, reflects that a dictator once lived as poorly as himself, while his opulent neighbour, whofe table is covered with profufion and fplendor, will fooner praise the temperate fobriety of Cincinnatus than the magnificent banquets of Alexandria. Germanicus, who feeks as much as poffible to diveft himself of all exterior grandeur, never omits an opportunity of celebrating the fimple manners of the ancient Romans. I could not forbear remarking to him on this occafion, how much Auguftus merited commendation; oftentatious magnificence was certainly in his power, and the example of the times authorifed it even to excefs; yet nothing could be more fimple, or more moderate, than his way of living. It is ftill a problem with me, which deferves moft praife, the man who makes a voluntary facrifice of luxurious deli

Horace, Ode 4, Book 4. † Prati de Quinti, ftill called fo."

cacy,

cacy, or he who has magnanimity enough not to envy those who are in poffeffion of enjoyments which he cannot procure. Satiety may influence the firft, and neceffity the fecond, but affuredly the example of a prince, who defpifes pomp and effeminacy, is of real and extensive advantage to his country.'

We add the following character of Valeria, the amiable female to whom Flaminius is, at the clofe of the ftory, happily united:

• Valeria expreffed the fentiments of her heart: the modefty, Simplicity, and reserve of her character, draw a veil over her perfections, and render them fill more interefting; her reading is extenfive, and her judgment far fuperior to what could be expected at her years he is acquainted with the beft authors of our country, and of Greece; her exquifite fenfibility, and the liveliness of ber imagination, give her the most correct and the most elegant tafte for poetry. She has a general acquaintance with the fciences and liberal arts; her father having enriched her mind with a variety of inftructions, which the ufes for the government of her life more than for the ornament of her converfation. Her manner of speaking affords a ftriking example of the purity of language, which Cicero* remarked in the Roman ladies of his time, uncorrupted by the affectation or barbarifm of foreign idioms; all that the fays is dictated by truth and candor, but the avoids giving her opinion except she is earnestly requested; and it is eafier to fee that the is not ignorant of the fubject, from her attention to what is faid by others, than from any attempt to difplay her own knowledge.

• Valeria is equally clear from the flighteft tincture of vanity in refpect to her perfonal attractions; every motion is graceful, and every look engaging, but fhe appears to have been thus formed by the partial hand of nature; and the fame exalted virtue, the fame delicacy of fentiment, which regulate her conduct, illuminate her features, and animate her form with dignity and elegance.

Her time is continually employed; and fhe never voluntarily remits her application for a moment's leifure but for the duties of affection or urbanity. Even when he is interrupted by the importunate vifits of the idle, fhe leaves them without apparent difpleasure, and always feems contented with that fociety in which fhe is placed. Valeria has a general benevolence for the good, and does not confine her efteem to diftinguished talents; the never remarks a want of understanding in innocent characters, nor fatirizes the errors of wayward imagination: the receives the praises of her friends not as a tribute but as a favour, and prefers the demonftrations of regard to thofe of admiration.'

The fum of our opinion of this work is, that, whatever defects it may seem to poffefs, when confidered historically, it is entitled to confiderable merit as a fictitious tale; and does great credit to the natural understanding and the cultivated mind of its fair author.

De Oratore.'

We have been informed that Mifs Knight is alfo the writer of an ingenious continuation of Johnfon's Raffelas, entitled Dinarbas: fee our Review for May laft, p. 106.

E.

ART. VIII. Letters containing an Account of the late Revolution in France, and Obfervations on the Conftitution, Laws, Manners, and Inftitutions of the English; written during the Author's Refidence at Paris, Verfailles, and London, in the Years 1789 and 1790. Tranflated from the German of Henry Frederic Groenvelt. 8vo. PP. 371. 45. 45. Boards. Johnfon. 1792.

THIS

HIS appears to be the work of a fenfible and reflecting German, whofe love of liberty, excited by the events which occurred in France in the years 1789-90, has been heightened and inflamed by confidering the political fervitude of his native country. That part of his work which treats of France, is entirely historical, and contains the origin and progress of the. revolution, from the first expectations entertained of the States General, to the declaration of the rights of men and citizens. Mr. G. is not an undifcerning panegyrift of this great political event; he extols, with juft praifes, the fentiments which animated its original authors: but he arraigns, with equal juftice, the cruelty, which, even in the firft ftages of the bufinefs, difgraced too many of its inftruments. The following paragraphs on this fubject are rendered interefting by what has fince happened, and especially by the fate of M. Barnave.

I am unacquainted with the public or private conduct of Foulon and Berthier; all I know of them is, that they died with firmnefs, and difdained to purchafe life by pretended difcoveries, or abje& fupplications. They had the reputation of being financiers, who were dead to all feeling for the people, who had enriched themfelves by their crimes, and who were the most fervile inftruments of defpotifm. It is faid, that they had perfonal enemies, who mingled in the crowd, and inflamed and directed their paffions. Foulon is reported to have declared, that if he were minifter, he would force the people to eat hay; and it was in allufion to this, that fome of the mob, after his death, ftuffed hay into his mouth. I have been affured, however, that he favoured and encouraged agriculture; and one of the fayings imputed to him, that he wished grafs to grow where Paris ftood, may be understood only to express his opinion, that the immenfe fize of the metropolis was prejudicial to the country.

I own I feel the utmost indignation, when I find thefe horrid acts of vengeance in the people, fpoken of with levity; and when I hear men, as I have done, indulging a favage kind of pleafantry, in facetious allufions to the lamp-poft. I was difgufted at Barnave, when I heard him in the affembly, offering an apology for thefe murders, by asking whether the blood that had been fhed was of the REV, OCT. 1792.

N

pure

pureft kind. It is true, that he had been provoked by violent declamations against the people, but nothing can be more mischie vous than fuch an expreffion in the mouth of a legiflator. However, much as I have been fhocked at thefe events, they have not altered my principles.'

Notwithstanding the many accounts of the French revolution which our curiofity or our duty, as readers for the public, had led us to peruse, we again read Mr. G.'s narrative of the fame tranfactions with no fmall degree of attention. Simplicity and precifion are the prevailing characteristics of his work. His partialities are all on the fide of liberty: but his love of liberty is not inconfiftent with humanity. As far as mere facts are concerned, his narrative is worthy of confidence. The general and predifpofing causes of the revolution are clearly pointed out but to reveal the immediate fprings and principles of many particular events, fome of which are the most important in the whole drama, is a tafk which must be left to the hiftorians of future times.

The fecond part of thefe travels relates to England, and is not hiftorical, but critical. The subjects treated are, Lotteries, the Civil and Criminal Laws of England, Newfpapers, Conftitution, Elections, Cruelty to Animals, Commerce, Judicial Legiflation, Literature and Literary Societies, Nobility, and the Slave Trade. We fhall infert fome pertinent ftrictures on Judicial Legiflation; ftrictures which it is impoffible to abridge, and which none will think too long, but those who are incapable of eftimating their importance. The author obferves, that the common law of England is merely traditionary, that there is not any text in which it is contained, and that he who wants to know what the law is on any fubject, must look to the particular cafes which happen to have been decided, and observe what the judges on thofe occafions remembered the law to be. The bufinefs of lawyers, in most nations, ancient and modern, confifted in applying the general rules of law to particular cafes: but the bufinefs of an English lawyer is the very reverfe of this. He is to extract a rule from all the particular cafes, which have been previously decided; and even when there is a precedent exactly in point, this precedent is fometimes denied, and fometimes over-ruled:-yet, (fays our author,) in fpeaking of former decifions, judges fay that they hold themfelves bound by them though they cannot approve them. Sometimes they are reduced to the difficulty of chufing between different authorities. Thence they are infenfibly led to determine, not what the law is, but what, in their judgment, it ought to be; and the diftinction between declaratory and enacting laws, becomes a diftinction merely nominal.